ESCAPE TIME!  with KC Heath

BROTHER TO SHADOWS
Andre Norton
Avon Books 1993
Pb 311 pages
ISBN # 0-380-77096-2

 

The Assha stone at Ho-Le-Far Lair has died, thus bringing down with it that lair's master as well as his best shadow brothers.  Jofre wants to commit ritual suicide also, but the Shagga priest will not permit him because he is an Outlander.  Jofre is not of Asborgan, but of another race of humanoid in a far distant future in a galaxy very populated with unusual life.  The master of Ho-Le-Far Lair had found Jofre when a babe, sole survivor of a wrecked spacer escape craft, and raised him in the way of the Brotherhood because more and more off-worlders were coming to Asborgan, and the master was a "forward-looking man."  Had been.  But power is always tenuous and when the Shagga priests win this round they accidentally set a new line of events in motion: this young man who has been trained as a body guard is no longer bound to them.

Once exiled by the priest, Jofre heads for the nearest town--in the dead of winter.  He has to shelter in Qaw-en-itter, a long-dead lair where Jofre is magically drawn to a piece of that lair's long broken Assha stone.  It wants in his pocket, so he doesn't argue, even though he knows it would be forbidden by the code with which he was raised. 

So now the Shagga priests want that stone, and they want Jofre dead because they fear the power he could wield with that stone.  But they have a bit of trouble getting to him as Jofre hires out as body guard to a lizardy Zacathan named Zurzal who takes Jofre off-world.  And Zurzal has a whole galaxy chasing him!  Zacathan's are diplomats and peacemakers, but most formidably they are knowledge keepers/seekers.  Zurzal has a "discovery": a machine that can recapture actual events out of the past.  This gets downright dangerous for our heroes when a planet in rebellion is able to show their populace, what REALLY happened fifty years ago. 

Other intriguing characters are the beautiful Shadow Sister Taynad who has been given the Shagga priest assignment against Jofre, and a furry little counterpart named Yan who is a Jat--an intelligent and extremely sensitive creature from a very distant world.  This is Andre Norton at her best--good action and wonderfully imaginative details--until the end which, in my opinion, falls flat.  It seemed to me that this great story in-the-making halted abruptly with a pat finish as if the author had been in a hurry to pack it off to market.  But Brother to Shadows is very good up until those last few pages (anyone know if there's a sequel?). 

Recommended for all science fiction fans who also enjoy a Samurai flavor in their reading.